hammernsickle wrote:I still wish Noble had declared for Ireland. Would love to see him in the World Cup.

The have got some really bog standard players in their team, there is no doubt about it and of that, he would fit in perfectly. Having said that, what they do and they are really expert at it is they play as a complete unit, doing all the basics right and this completely nullifies any threat from their opponents, but it will only ever get them so far

Commiserations to TOMOS & others.Well done to the Paddy's. Made the most of Bales absence.Only half the job done tho & unseeded. Be interesting who they get. Hope not NI & hope they don't get cheated again like the Henry handball.Iceland's first World Cup...

hammerddh wrote:Cannot believe the hype over this match.Qualified for the qualifiers, so

In other news England are s*** having qualified unbeaten and with a game to go

Well considering where the leagues of Ireland, the Welsh leagues are in terms of European football, I'd say it's a good indictment of their footballing countries to have had the levels of success either have had. Yes a lot of their players play in the English leagues but a lot of their players are not household names or play for the big teams.

Take Bale and Ramsey out of Wales, Northern Ireland and the republic and how many from those teams play in top 10 PL teams ? Even Scotland missing out on goal difference with a team including players from Blackburn and Derby is an achievement in itself.

The English PL is the richest in Europe, probably even the world so they should be making finals. I'd actually say that out of the British nations, England are performing the worst based on size and finance.

It would have been fantastic if all home nations and ROI had qualified. Sadly I think that last summer is the closest that we will ever come to seeing that in the near future.